Celine the Baker - Justin Nobel

12 WOMEN IN BUSINESSCeline fires chewy batardes on Main StreetPOINT REYES LIGHT September 6, 2007by Justin NobelStreets are empty and shops are shut at3 a.m. in Point Reyes Station but the lightin a small clapboard house on the cornerof 4th and Main rarely goes out. Last Saturday,smoke curled above the roof and reggaemusic and the smell of singed flour waftedfrom a window. Inside, Celine Underwoodwas baking sourdough bread in a woodfiredbrick oven.“Since I was a teenager, whenever Iwent somewhere new I would go down alist of bakeries and make it a point to visiteach one,” said Celine, who grew up in WestMarin.Seven years ago she opened BrickmaidenBreads and began baking her own loaves.Most bread is produced from prepackagedmixes in commercial ovens but Celine usesher own starter and bakes in one of thecounty’s few brick ovens. Hers is the onlyone owned and operated by a woman.ShapingBrickmaiden bread is baked in a smallcabin in Celine’s front yard. Sacks of flowerstand by the door and footprints etchedin flour decorate a hardwood floor. Woodracks on the far wall are lined with loaves:baguettes in center, batardes on the side.Caged light bulbs bathe the room in a paleorange glow.Baking Brickmaiden bread is a nearly24-hour long process. Last Saturday, Celinerose at 1 a.m. and put on a camouflaged cap,a dust mask and a pair of floury clogs. Anapron covered a pink T shirt and her jeanswere rolled at the shins. With a flick of thewrist she sprinkled bran and flour thenslashed loaf tops with a thin razor called alamb. The cuts release heat and serve as signaturesfor bakers. She transferred loaves tothe oven with a long wood tray called a peel.Baking takes about 20 minutes but loavesmust be rotated after five or ten. Breadagainst the wall will burn and thinner baguettesneed less heat.The oven weighs 30,000 pounds and wasbuilt in Marshall by an apprentice of AlanScott, a master brick oven builder from Tasmania.It is eight feet deep, six feet wide andholds 60 loaves of bread. The oven is linedwith large bricks called pavers and insulatedwith a mixture of cement and vermiculite,a mineral that expands when heated.Last winter a truck hauled it to Point Reyeswhere a crane lifted it into place.Wood to fire the oven comes from almondtrees. Firing starts at nine the morningbefore the bake and wood is addedthroughout the day. During this time doughis mixed, shaped and set between rippleson rough mats called couches. The coldpale loaves are placed in the fridge wherethey will slowly rise for eight hours. Oventemperatures peak in the afternoon around900ºF. By 2 a.m. they have dropped below600 and baking begins.Wood-fired brick ovens are touted for beingable to hold more moisture in the doughthan convection ovens, which are ideal forpastries, or rack ovens, which are fired bygas. Brick oven crust is golden and thick andchewy and the inside is moist and spongy.“This oven has a beautiful way of caramelizingdough,” said Celine. “The stonesget saturated and a deep heat springs up andmakes the loaves lofty.”PreshapingCeline was born in Orange County andspent her late teens on the S-2 ranch in Marshall.Oven builder Alan Scott lived aboveher and Celine often sat in while he bakeddesem bread, a dense oval loaf.“I remember getting it and going, ‘Mom,what is this?’” said Celine. “It sparked an interest.”After graduating Evergreen College inOlympia, Washington, where she lived nextto a bakery, she baked bread at the BovineBakery in Point Reyes Station then traveledthe French countryside for a year.“All I ate was baguettes with jam or goatcheese,” said Celine.Charmed by the bread, she presentedbakers with a translated note saying thatshe was interested in learning how to bakebread and willing to work for free. No onehired her but she returned to Point Reyesmotivated to start her own bakery.In 2000, a space downtown becameavailable and Celine seized the opportunitywith financial support from Bovine ownerBridget Devlin.Today Brickmaiden bread is sold at storesin Stinson and Inverness Park. Customersat Toby’s line up to wait for Brickmaidenscones. The Marshall general store sellsPlease turn to page 16

16 WOMEN IN BUSINESSPOINT REYES LIGHT September 6, 2007Brickmaiden bread is baked in a small cabin in Celine’s front yard. Last Saturday, Celine rose at 1 a.m. to start the bake. She put on a camouflaged cap, adust mask and a pair of floury clogs. She didn’t get off until 4 p.m. Photo by Justin Nobel.>> CelineContinued from page12focaccia and the Bovine sells Brickmaidencroutons and granola.“Whatever she touches is gold,” saidBridget.Behind the bakery is Celine’s home, a1914 ranch house with tall windows andslanted ceilings. She lives with her husbandIdo, who grew up in Point Reyes, and theirtowheaded two-year-old, Naima.“She’s not really into bread unless itsmine or a peanut butter sandwich,” said Celine.IngredientsThe base of sourdough bread is a starter, amixture of flour and water that draws yeastand bacteria from the air. Starters changewith their surroundings: deserts are too dryto produce good ones but San Francisco,where it’s often cool and damp, is knownas a sourdough hotspot. After several daysstarters begins to bubble and stink as sugarsare digested by bacteria. A starter must beregularly fed with flour and water.“It’s like having a baby,” said Celine, whofeeds her starter three times a day.Celine buys flour from a family ownedcompany in south San Francisco and gets agrey sea salt called Sal de Guerande from thecoast of France. Customers sometimes complainabout biting into flecks of seaweed andshell fragments. Every four months Celinereceives 220 pounds of salt at a cost of about$1,000. Flour is shipped twice a month.The hardest ingredient to keep in stockis good bakers. Celine had numerous applicantsfor a position open this summer butno one she trained has stuck around.“A lot were people with a romantic vision,”said Celine. “Others thought they wereworking in a kitchen. With some I worriedabout stamina. It just wears on your body.”Baking is like playing a game of basketballfor a week straight, said Matt Kreutz,one of two other full-time Brickmaidenbakers. “People who like it love it and peoplewho don’t don’t. If you don’t like it yournot gonna last long.”Matt is tall and friendly with a shavedhead, a bushy goatee and arms inked withtattoos. “[Baking bread] takes a lot of moxie,”he said. “You’re really putting yourselfout there and that’s fun and exciting and alittle scary.”For Brickmaiden bakers “putting yourselfout there” means carting loaves to localmerchants who will sell them to customersthroughout the day. Just before dawn lastSaturday, Celine loaded five bags of breadinto a red wagon and stepped into an eeriemist. Streets were still empty and streetlightsglowed in the fog.“I don’t particularly like getting up thisearly,” Celine had mentioned earlier, “butthere’s nothing like the hours of the daywhen no one else is around and seeing theday open.”